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Stephen Harper will come to the aid of Canadians in trouble abroad when it is politically useful.

The sentencing of Canadian-Egyptian journalist Mohammed Fahmy, centre, has prompoted a muted response from Stephen Harper. “Obviously, there are some difficult circumstances here," he said. You could call that a measured response. Or you could call it milquetoast, writes Thomas Walkom.
(Heba Elkholy / AP file phot)

“The Egyptian authorities are very aware of the position of the government of Canada and we will continue to press that position going forward,” Harper told reporters Thursday in response to questions about the trial and sentencing.

What exactly is that position? Is Harper, like Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, “shocked, dismayed, bewildered” by the severe sentences handed down Monday to three Al Jazeera journalists?

Is he “appalled,” like British foreign secretary William Hague?

Does he, like U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, conclude that “injustices like these can simply not stand if Egypt is to move forward”?

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Not quite.

“On the case of the journalist in Egypt, we have been very clear about our deep concerns, not just about the verdict but about this process,” Harper said. “We have expressed those to the authorities.

“Obviously, there are some difficult circumstances here.”

You could call that a measured response. Or you could call it milquetoast.

The prime minister says the government has made its concerns clear to Egypt over prison sentences imposed on three journalists there. Egyptian-Canadian Mohammed Fahmy was one of those convicted on terrorism-related charges.(CP)

But what’s intriguing about Harper’s remarkably diffident reaction is that this very political prime minister figures he can get away with it.

He calculates that, in the end, most Canadians inclined to vote Conservative won’t care about the fate of a 40-year-old Egyptian-Canadian journalist.

Certainly, the government is going out of the way to point out that Fahmy is a dual national, a citizen of both Canada and Egypt.

Baird has suggested that this is the central problem, noting Tuesday that “when you’re a citizen of Egypt you’re subject to Egyptian law when you’re there, not Canadian law.”

In fact, as Fahmy’s Australian colleague Peter Greste found out, anyone who happens to be in Egypt is subject to Egyptian law, dual citizen or not.

Greste, too, has received a seven-year sentence for the crime of spreading what the Egyptian government calls false news.

Fahmy’s problem is not that he is a dual citizen. It is that Egypt’s military-dominated government has a grudge against his employer, Qatar-based Al Jazeera.

His other problem is that the Harper government is selective when it comes to helping Canadian citizens in trouble abroad. It reserves its efforts for those who will produce the best political results.

In 2007, for instance, Harper had strong words of backing for Huseyin Celil — a dual citizen, but one who was imprisoned in China by a Communist regime.

“We view Mr. Celil as a Canadian citizen,” the prime minister said then. “At all opportunities, we have taken the time to raise his case, to express our concerns, to demand that justice be done.”

A year later, Harper leapt to the defence of Brenda Martin, a Canadian sentenced to five years in a Mexican jail for Internet fraud.

After the prime minister personally intervened, Martin was allowed to serve out her time in Canada (where she soon won parole).

Other Canadians, however, have received short shrift.

Harper had no brief whatsoever for Abousfian Abdelrazik, a Canadian stranded in Sudan for six years after Ottawa refused to renew his passport.

Eventually, a federal court judge forced the government’s hand and Abdelrazik came home.

Nor has the Harper government been much help to Bashir Makhtal, a Canadian caught up in Somalia after U.S.-backed Ethiopian forces invaded in 2006.

Makhtal escaped to Kenya where he was illegally handed over to the Ethiopians and jailed.

Ottawa could have threatened to cut back the more than $100 million in foreign aid it gives Ethiopia each year.

But through Baird, then transport minister, it pursued quiet diplomacy instead.

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